Our Gardens

Our members have shared gardening tips and ideas with each other. Here is what they have accomplished with their own gardens.

Louise's

Early spring 2015 at the pond. 3 foreground plants were from a Garden Club meeting or the plant sale.

Tree Peony

Yellow Butterfly Magnolia

Gail's

My back garden in Tsaw. is sunny part of the day. I aim for lots of colours and textures. I load it with perennials so there is little room for weeds.

It has many perennials purchased from the garden club plant sales over the years. High density planting doesn’t allow much room for weeds. Pots can be moved to fill in where extra colour or texture is needed.

This is my back garden at our cottage in Hope.

My aim is easy care plants that blend well with the woods behind our property.

Back shade garden at our cottage in Hope. My aim is for a variety in colours and textures. This stumps garden is easy care and blends well with the woods behind.

Ursula's

When
we moved into our house in 1991 the backyard consisted of 2 stumps (one so
covered in ivy we didn’t know what was under it), 1 fern, 1 Aucuba, and a
gazebo in the middle of a sand pit. The soil was so poor no grass could grow.

Our first task was getting rid of the stumps. The first one we dug out but then we got smart. Our brilliant idea was to set
it on fire every evening at about dinner time hoping it would be assumed we
were barbecuing. That did work for a number of days but we got a little too
enthusiastic one day and the fire department arrived to ask my husband to
please put a hose on it. So it was back to the chainsaw and digging method
until that one was gone too.

I’d
never gardened in my life, in fact, I’d never even lived in a detached house
and so I set about buying every plant I saw and making many mistakes. (I’m
still learning!) The concept of the right plant in the right place was totally
foreign to me but it is now my mantra.

Here is what our backyard looks like now:

The cedar trees lining the back of the property produce a natural bed beneath them where the grass was constantly dying; so I followed the curve of dead grass to delineate the edge of the bed. Under the trees is a woodland style garden with bulbs and Rhodos for spring colour and fall anemones for later in the season. That area takes a back seat once the summer takes off and the beds in the sunny area put on some colour.

My aim is to have some colour all year and not all of it at once. I’d rather have one good focal point than a lot of disjointed activity.

Here is my view when I look out the front door.

The
last couple of years my projects have included getting more perennials in pots,
adding vertical interest and layers, and bringing in decorative objects. Future
plans would be to add a water feature, some lighting, a watering system and rip
out the aged concrete patio. Just need to talk Peter in to it.